The New York Times: Analysis of satellite imagery correctly points to the culprit who caused a forest fire in Amazon

Amazon wildfire in recent days has been assessed as a disaster at the size of the globe. According to new information, more than 1,633 new fires occurred on August 22-23, bringing the total number of forest fires in Brazil to over 76,600 cases. The fires were so big that they could be seen from the universe, and made cities in the cities thousands of kilometers away from the scene in the middle of the day.

Who is the culprit? Environmentalists believe that the source of fire starts with farmers’ shifting cultivation, but the underlying cause is the claims that will radically exploit the economic potential of the incumbent president Jair. Bolsonaro.

But is that the real culprit, or is it just a hypothetical ground? Suspecting this, the New York Times recently published a study, in which experts analyzed Amazon’s satellite image data, to point out exactly what the “culprit” was causing the disaster. .

And the cause is exactly what experts worry: most of the fires come from agricultural lands, where trees have been cleaned up.

Yellow is the felling of forests in 2018, and red is where the forest fires since August

Most of the fires are mainly set by farmers themselves, in preparation for the next year’s crop. According to the University of Maryland (USA), this is a common practice in Brazilian agriculture. As the picture below is an example, shows the smoke rising from the agricultural areas of Amazon.

The problem is that most of the current agricultural land is created “by” the destruction of the Amazon forest for many years. “Most of this land was originally a forest,” – Matthew Hansen, head of research at the University of Maryland.

“The rain forest is there, and then all of a sudden it turns into a forest … soybeans with corn.”

The chart below is also a difficult proof to deny. It shows the frequency of forest fires per month throughout the Amazon buying forest from year to year since 2011. It can be seen that forest fires occur mainly in the dry season – the period from August to October, coinciding with the time when farmers Prepare to plant new crops.

Forest fires increase year by year, most in dry months

This chart was created by data from two NASA satellites Terra and Aqua, which are equipped with tools to receive radiation emitted when there is a fire. And if you compare August 2019 with the same period of the previous years, you will understand why people call this forest fire a global disaster.

The graph shows the average forest fire density 8 / 2011-2018 and August 2019

Compared to the average fire density of the last 8 years, August 2019 is up to 35% more. Some states also recorded an increase of more than 110%.

“Forest fires can be caused by thunderstorms, but basically not the natural phenomenon of a tropical rainforest,” said Mark Cochrane, an expert in forest fire and ecology from the University of Maryland. “All these fires are human.”

Cochrane also shared a remarkable fact, that although most fires occurred in areas that had been cleared, there were still many incidents occurring in dense forests. According to him, this could be the fire used to destroy the forest, not to clear the forest to prepare for the new crop.

“Cutting down a forest, putting them together, letting them dry and then putting in a fire, it will burn very hard and emit a lot of smoke,” – quoted Cochrane. In fact, it has been shown that the rate of deforestation in Brazil is increasing rapidly in recent years. Especially since President Bolsonaro came to power, the rate of felling has even increased by 278% in the last 2 months.

In the New York Times analysis, it was shown that the Brazilian environmental agencies’ ability to protect forests decreased by 20% in the first 6 months, compared to the same period in 2018.

After many days of criticism from local and international public opinion, President Bolsonaro has to go into the water, declare what the army will come to fight against the fire, and enforce environmental laws.

Reference: The New York Times